Global Warming

[Chuck Cooper <ccc@pp.pdx.edu>]

The global warming theory models the effects of "greenhouse gasses" produced

by

modern industrial cultures on atmospheric changes in thermal retention of

solar

radiation. The solar radiation budget on the earth is calculated at 2.22-11 GW

per year or

5000 times more than that produced by the worlds oil at 100% thermal

conversion, a trivial

amount.



Our atmosphere acts like the glass in a greenhouse. It lets sunlight through

from

space to the ground. The ground warms up and radiates infrared light back into



space. However, certain gasses in the atmosphere, the oxides of nitrogen,

methane

and carbon dioxide are opaque to this lower wavelength re-radiated infrared

light,

just like greenhouse glass. And so the atmosphere warms up, climate patterns

change

and the model chokes.



It's the additional capture of solar radiation that's the issue, not the heat

added

by combustion processes. Nuclear power does not directly generate CO2

which is a big advantage.



Chuck Cooper

Dir. EH&S

Portland State University







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